User:Virtualiter/Carl Brendel

Carl Brendel (* July 14, 1835 in Ansbach – 1919 or 1922) was a German doctor, mostly in Uruguay, and as a pensioner in Munich ultimately a "Mäßigkeitsapostel" (temperance apostle).

The administrator's son received a scholarship of 15 fl in 1852/53 and was assigned the vacant position of general practitioner in the village of Solenhofen on July 8, 1861. On February 8, 1866, "Fr. Kur" informed "his political friends" in the Fränkische Zeitung that "he had settled down as a civil doctor in the charming Brazilian port city of Mazejo, not far from [the Colombian Rio] Fernanbuco". While he worked as a doctor in Montevideo from 1867 to 1892, he made a name for himself in the fight against epidemics (yellow fever) and was given the honorary name "Gringo de confianza" (the reliable gringo) by the population. In 1877/78 he was the driving force behind the separation of the community school from the Protestant church community. Around 1905 or 1915 he had been a pensioner in Munich for 12 1/2 years and was railing against alcohol consumption. His diary was "recently" published in Spanish by Fernando Mañé Garzón.

The memoirs of Dr. Carl Brendel, also German and respected in Montevideo for his professional work, serve us wonderfully to learn about aspects of Eduardo Kemmerich's activities inside and outside the production plant LEMCO. We will also see how both built up a long personal and family friendship through social and professional relationships.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the Internat. Monatsschrift der Antialkoholier ranted:

He grew up in Ansbach, attended high school, completed his medical studies at the universities of Würzburg, Munich, Vienna and Berlin, and then worked for a few years at the hospital in his home town to complete his training. He worked for five years as a general practitioner in small towns in his home district; during this time (1864) he married. But then his energy and drive gave him no peace, a long-considered plan was put into action and, following the advice of a friend, he went to South America. At first he practiced medicine for a few years in Maceio in Brazil; but the unfavourable climate of the place drove him away and he settled in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. It was only there that his knowledge and skills came into their own and developed. Brendel became the most sought-after, most popular and successful doctor in the country, and he was famous as a surgeon and obstetrician. He was called far into the interior of the state, making journeys lasting days (on horseback or in a carriage) to remote farms, which were not without dangers and adventures. With boldness and confidence he performed laparotomies and ovariotomies at a time when these operations were only performed by clinicians in exceptional cases. He returned to Europe several times to expand and perfect his knowledge at universities. Hygiene was in its early stages of development at that time; Brendel's lively, quick-witted mind immediately grasped the enormous importance of preventing tropical diseases, and he was one of the first to apply the results of research into malaria, yellow fever, etc. to the sick bed. In 1892 Brendel returned to Europe with his family; he took up permanent residence in Munich. The fruits of his strenuous, exhausting 28 years of work enabled him to give up his profession and pursue his hobbies. It is remarkable that Brendel, who had spent his adult years under conditions so vastly different from ours, nevertheless immediately grasped the demands of the day with a clear eye and devoted his great energy to social work, to social prophylaxis. While most people at that time only engaged in "charity", he wanted nothing to do with this quack work. He devoted himself to prevention, to the renewal of our moral, economic and social conditions; and since his keen eye soon recognized that the drinking habit was one of the most important causes of the problems, he quickly and resolutely placed himself in the ranks of those who fought against alcohol, initially as a "moderate" since there were hardly any abstainers in Germany at that time, but soon as a teetotaler at the instigation of his close friend, the Würzburg pathologist Fick. When the Association of Abstinent Doctors was founded by Forel in 1896, Brendel was among the founders members. Since then he has worked with us without interruption. Thanks to his sharp mind and his energy, his impeccable lifestyle and his nobility of spirit, his advertising power was great. Brendel's character is not without its rough edges, which have caused bloody injuries to many who have had dealings with him; he also knows how to use his elbows when he cannot break through otherwise. But these very qualities were necessary in the fight for a new idea that was ridiculed and misunderstood everywhere; he told his opponents the truth with a golden ruthlessness that often enough banished their ridicule for good. Let us not forget that Brendel fought alcohol in Munich, a city that was seemingly inextricably linked to German drinking habits like no other in Germany; There really were times when many residents of Bavaria's capital were proud and boasted that beer consumption was higher there than anywhere else in the world and that Munich's Hofbräu was one of the most important symbols of Germanness in all five continents. If this madness is slowly fading, beer consumption is gradually decreasing, and the alarming dangers of this flood of beer have been exposed, then a large part of the credit for this must go to Brendel. He wrote, spoke and worked tirelessly. Whenever it was a question of curbing the temptation to drink through social welfare, public kitchens, restaurants, fountains and homes, he was there; and when it was a question of enlightenment, removing prejudices, fighting the enemy, namely alcohol capitalism and beer philistinism - he hates both of them with a passion - he was at the forefront. No path was too far for him, no staircase too high, he disturbed the court councillors and department heads from their comfort, he extracted from rich people the money they needed for charitable undertakings with gentle force. Even today, when Brendel is eighty years old, the abstinence movement in Bavaria, and indeed in southern Germany, still has in him an invaluable support."

Publications

 * Der Alkohol ein Völkergift : Vortrag / von C. Brendel; 1895, In: Schriftenreihe: Für Freunde und Feinde des Trinkens

Literature

 * Carl Brendel, Angel Ayestaran, Fernando Mañe Garzon: ''El gringo de confianza : memorias del médico alemán Carl Brendel, en el río de La Plata: 1867-1892'